Bungoma,the Land with great potential

Fertile lands, rivers with falls that can generate electricity, tourist sites and hard-working people give Bungoma the potential to stand as a commercially independent county. Underpinning its strength is agriculture: sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, onions, vegetables and dairy cattle. Maize in Tongaren and Naitiri make the county a vital part of the country’s bread basket. Two main roads, the Webuye-Bungoma-Malaba highway and the Webuye-Kitale thoroughfare give the county a lifeline with long distance trucks ferrying produce to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Mombasa to Uganda highway cuts through the county, as does the Uganda railway. Roads are paved from Webuye to Kitale, Kamukuywa to Kimilili and Chwele, and Kimilili to Kapsokwony near Mt Elgon. Bungoma’s strategic position in western Kenya makes it ideally placed for cross-border trade with Uganda through Malaba in Busia (43 kilometres from Bungoma), Lwakhakha and Chepkube along the common border. Bungoma people — the Bukusu, Tachoni, Sabaots and others — are anxious to take their new county to the promised land. In Bungoma, historical sites, scenic hills and rivers dotted with whispering waterfalls, all make superb destinations for tourists. A visit to Chetambe Fort, the Golan Heights of Bungoma, from where the Bukusu and Tachoni watched the advancing colonialists is a must in the tourism map. The fort was built on the hill by Chetambe Ifile, a Tachoni warrior, from where he mobilised his troops to resist colonial rule, leading to the 1895 massacre in which more than 450 people were killed by the British. Mr Nelson Kakai, 60, a great-grandson of Ifile, has preserved the fort, built behind a protective 12-foot defensive ditch. From the hill, one has a beautiful view of Webuye Town and a carpet of sugarcane that stretches to the horizon. Just a kilometre away, is the Nabuyole Falls on the River Nzoia, where tourists troop to watch the water cascade a full seven metre height to the rocks below. Awaiting the tourists eyes are three trees of historical significance, planted by founding President Jomo Kenyatta, Uganda’s first President Milton Obote and Elijah Masinde, a revered Bukusu leader of Dini Ya Msambwa. Twenty kilometres south two landmarks – the Mwibale wa Mwanja and Sang’alo hills. From the summit of Mwanja, there is a superb view of Mumias in neighbouring Kakamega County, Bungoma and Webuye, plus an endless vista of sugarcane. Sang’alo’s twin peaks are like the gap in a person’s front teeth, with one peak appearing to clutch a huge rock that looks as if it is about to fall. Webuye Town, planned as heart of the county’s industrial might, is home to Pan African Paper Mill, once the biggest paper manufacturer in East and Central Africa but which collapsed. The government is struggling to revive it but its future remains uncertain. Opposite stands Pan African Chemicals, makers of acids supplied all over the world. Bungoma, 28 kilometres further along the Mombasa-Uganda highway, is the county capital. Both towns lie on the Uganda railway, once an indispensable way to carry goods to Uganda and Central Africa. Other key towns in the new county include Chwele, Malakisi, Kimilili and Lugulu. Maeni, about 10 kilometres from Kimilili, is home of the Dini Ya Msambwa (Church of Spirits) of Elijah Masinde. A mausoleum has been built at his home where politicians and tourists go to take pictures of Masinde, whose life was spent in and out of prison before and after Independence. His sect was opposed to white rule and after Independence remained critical of the government. But it is the secret bunker in which he hid from British soldiers for three years that is most worth visiting. Near Sulwe village at the foot of Mt Elgon, it is tended by Juda Israel, a splinter group of Masinde’s sect whose members are keen to keep it hidden. Mt Elgon forms a ring around the county to the north and part of the east. Apart from sightseeing, it forms part of the Kenya-Uganda border with caves that open in Kenya onto Uganda. There is another beautiful waterfall on River Kuywa at Teremi, one with great potential for a hydro-electricity power plant. Already, some local investors have formed the Teremi Falls Small Hydro Power Plant company and are at an advanced stage of building the plant. Mr Joseph Simiyu Mukhamule, an engineer and one of the investors who conceived the project, said when completed it will produce four megawatts a day. Such powerful supply, if not added to the national grid, could light up the whole of the county and meet its industrial needs. Mr Mukhamule said: “We will supply the power to the national grid and we will ensure that Bungoma gets first preference in cases of power rationing.” To a traveller, Bungoma County, which is 375 kilometres west of Nairobi, is a feast to the eye across a seemingly endless panorama of sugarcane – a dependable cash crop spread all over the county. Tobacco fields are another eyecatcher in Malakisi, 25 kilometres north of Bungoma Town. They are like a huge field of spinach. Malakisi, a dilapidated town that is crying out for a facelift, is home to the giant tobacco companies BAT and Mastermind, and it is where they get the bulk of their raw material. It is a cash crop local people hold dear as it offers returns after only six months. “I would rather grow tobacco than sugarcane which will take two years,” commented farmer Samuel Obetele. It is at the foot of Mt Elgon that the county becomes difficult to cross without four-wheel drive vehicles as the roads are quite rough. The Sabaot who inhabit this area have had long standing disputes over land which led to the formation of the Sabaot Land Defence Force, an illegal outfit that pretends to fight for their rights. The Chebyuk Settlement Scheme is in the area and the government has allotted 2.5-acre plots for each settler. The new county government will also have to address the grievances of its sugarcane farmers. They have been pressing for substantial shares in Nzoia Sugar before it is privatised and floated in the Nairobi Stock Exchange. Mr Joash Wamangoli, chairman of the Nzoia Outgrowers, which represents the farmers, says the county will have to address the issues squarely. “Things will no longer be imposed on us from Nairobi; we will have to do it our way and not theirs,” he says. The farmers want to own 70 per cent of the shares in the factory and the machines to be overhauled to cope with the cane, which outstrips its capacity to crush. By EMMAN OMARI, Daily Nation